Chapter 3

"Normal No More"

After finishing his homework Cody went to lie down on his bed put in his Ipod's ear buds. He closed his eyes and allowed his body to relax as he listened to his favorite playlist on a low volume setting. Cody let himself get lost in the music, forcing all thoughts of his next mission and the religious preacher's image out of his memory, and subsequently lost track of time. It came as a surprise when a soft warm hand gently caressed the side of his face. He opened his eyes and saw his mom standing over him.

"Hey mom," Cody greeted, pulling out his ear buds as she sat down on the edge of his bed.

"I'm sorry sweetheart. I didn't mean to wake you." Carey said soothingly, brushing several strands of golden blond hair out of his eyes. He looked her in the eyes for a moment, thinking how different he and Zack were. Zack would pull away from her touch, believing that he was too macho and manly to accept this display of affection. Cody however craved his mother's love, it made him feel many years younger and helped remind him of a time when things were simpler.

"It's ok, I wasn't sleeping."

"Well, since you're awake what do you want for dinner? I was thinking about ordering something before I leave for my six o'clock show and have dinner with you guys at seven."

"Pizza? Chinese?" Cody suggested not really minding what his mother chose. He wasn't hungry right now either. Carey looked at the ceiling for a moment thoughtfully.

"We haven't had Chinese in awhile. What do you guys want?" Glancing over at Zack's bed, Cody realized that his twin still wasn't home and that his mom figured Cody would know what to order for both of them.

"Um…I'll have Beef Lo Mien and Zack will probably want Beef and Broccoli," Cody answered with the same menu choices that the twins had made the last time they ordered Chinese.

"Ok honey. I'll go order it and I'll leave the money on the counter." Carey planted a kiss on his forehead and then walked out of the bedroom. Cody just stayed where he was, not bothering to put his ear buds back in as he would have to keep an ear out for the delivery man. He heard his mother order dinner and then leave for her early evening show and then the suite was silent except for the soft buzz of music near his ears and his own slow breathing. Cody wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he soon heard the front door open and someone walk into the room.

"Hey twenty bucks!" Zack exclaimed from the kitchen. He rolled his eyes.

"Drop it! That's for dinner," Cody commanded, not bothering to get up. Zack would be in the bedroom soon enough. Sure enough Zack's backpack sailed through the door, bounced off the empty bed and crashed into the floor.

"Sup Cody?" Zack said by way of greeting as he entered the bedroom, considered Cody for a moment and then flopped down next to him. Cody pushed his brother off of his bed and Zack mocked an injury after he hit the floor.

"Dude go take a shower, you reek of sex," Cody told him as he finally sat up. There was a time when he could have been too embarrassed to say something like that to his brother, or think about its implications, but they'd both grown up a lot over the last few years. Zack stood up, pinched the collar of his t-shirt, pulled it forward and took a couple of sniffs before letting go and shrugging.

"I guess I do. You should try it some time." Zack taunted, pulling some clothes out of the laundry basket next to his bed that had been sitting there for almost two weeks. Cody reached out with his leg and kicked his brother in the thigh in retaliation. He and Barbara were very much as intimate as Zack and Max were, but they were just more discrete about it. Without bothering to retaliate himself, Zack left the room with a change of fresh clothes and took a ten minute shower which was his longest ever Cody mused.

While he waited for his brother, Cody pulled out the envelope Strange had sent him and spread out the contents of it on his bed. He leaned back, reached behind him and pulled his laptop over to his side. After a moment, Cody was punching the address which was written on a blank sheet of paper into Google Maps. It took him to a suburb on the outskirts of the D.C. area and zooming in to street level with satellite view he saw that the address was just one of many houses in the neighborhood. He considered this information for a moment, wondering whether this was the preacher's house and if that place was where the twins would have to assassinate him.

Eventually Zack came back into the bedroom freshly showered and wearing fresh clothes, more or less, with his hair still damp and clinging to his head. He smelled strongly of Axe body wash which he preferred to use, while Cody normally stuck with Irish Spring, which was a refreshing change for the normally anti-shower twin. They both had grown up though and Zack could no longer go a week or two without showering like he used to, though he still tried to skip a few days here and there. With a glance at what he was doing, Cody saw Zack's expression change from a detached calmness to a dreadful acceptance that there was work to be done.

"So where we going now?"

"Washington D.C."

"Never been there, what's the mission?" Zack asked now all business, sitting down on the edge of the bed and looking at the plane tickets.

"We've got to be here at this time on this day," Cody indicated to the map on his laptop and holding the piece of paper in his free hand so that Zack could see, "And this guy apparently needs to be silenced." Zack took the newspaper clipping from him and studied the man's picture for a moment as though he were trying to burn the image into his mind.

"No one ever said these missions were going to be easy," Zack finally said, setting the paper down and looking at the ground.

"He's never asked us to kill anyone…" Cody trailed off. They were both startled by knocking at the suite's door and it took Cody a second to remember that it was just the delivery guy. He got up, leaving Zack to absorb the weight of their next mission and paid for dinner.

Cody was barely conscious, the pain in his body keeping him awake. His nose was stuffed up, mouth dry, throat sore and a near constant flow of mucus building up in his throat made it hard to breathe. He took a couple of wheezing breaths, not getting as much air as he would have liked and mustered up the strength to cough in order to break up the mucus and then swallowed it to clear his throat. This proved to be painful as the vibrations triggered a series of sharp pains racing through his head. Cody hated being sick, he felt so empty and drained of life.

Someone was in the hospital room with him and his brother. Cody could faintly hear a voice that he'd never heard before, but made him uneasy, and Zack replying in kind. He was distantly aware of the bed moving and a presence above him. The bed sheets entangling his arms and legs were gently untangled and as his hospital shirt was lifted, Cody opened his eyes a crack to see the man standing over him. He wanted to scream at what he saw, but his mouth just didn't seem to work properly. The man's hand came down and pressed against his bare chest and rather than going away, as he remembered it, the pain increased ten fold.

Zack was jolted wide awake by Cody's screams of pain. There was no grogginess or lack of comprehension caused by waking up unexpectedly. The sound was so horrible that he felt like he'd been zapped by a live electrical wire. Zack quickly rolled out of his bed, throwing his sheets off of him in the same motion and came to his brother's side at the same time that he deduced that there was no one else in the room causing him this pain.

"Cody!" Zack grabbed his twin's shoulders and shook him, thinking that he was having a nightmare or something. Then he realized that Cody was conscious and screaming out in pain, not terror. His skin had a bright red shade to it and was completely covered in sweat. What was wrong with him?

Zack felt so helpless as he watched his brother writhe in agony on the bed…He watched in horror as Cody's skin rippled all along his arms, legs and face like there was something moving underneath it. Upon touching his brother's extremely hot skin, he felt the ripples pass underneath his fingertips and noted that whatever was causing them felt as solid as flexed muscle. Cody suddenly grabbed onto Zack's forearm with surprising speed and strength as he looked up at him, eyes bulging from the pain.

There was a moment where Cody just held onto him like that, looking him in the eye, before he fell back on his bed and gave one final loud scream. His body seemed to visibly relax as the ripples stopped and he lay still for a moment, whimpering softly as tears streamed down his cheeks. It appeared that it was all over…

"Cody?" Zack inquired again, sitting down next to his twin and wiping the sweat drenched hair out of his eyes and off of his forehead. Cody's eye's opened a crack and looked at him.

"Water…" He croaked in a raspy voice barely above a whisper. Zack jumped up and tore into the main part of the suite, yanking the fridge open in seconds and grabbed a bottled water from the middle shelf. Zack noticed that his mother was nowhere to be found as he raced back into the bedroom. Cody didn't seem to have the strength to move so Zack held the bottle up to his twin's lips and let the water trickle into his mouth. When the bottle was half empty, Zack paused not wanting to over do it. For a moment Cody seemed to be feeling better, then he mustered up the strength to begin rolling out of bed.

"Bathroom…now!" He said urgently, answering Zack's unspoken question, accepting his help without second thought. Cody hobbled over to the bathroom as Zack bore most of his weight, nearly dragging him the short distance. Pushing him away, Cody dropped to his knees in front of the toilet and threw up. Zack looked away as his twin heaved several times, but not before he saw the bright red blood mixed in with everything else that was coming up.

"Just leave me here…I'll be alright," Cody finally said after he had finished.

"What do you mean you'll 'be alright'?" Zack asked, his voice heavily laden with concern and confusion about what was going on. His brother flushed the toilet and then propped his elbows on the seat, staring down into the clear swirling water replacing the mess he had put into it.

"I'm changing, I can feel it. Strange said it wouldn't do us permanent harm."

"Changing? How?"

"He said we'd know in time…" Cody answered unhelpfully.

"Isn't there anything that I can do?" Zack offered, feeling terrible that he could do nothing to ease his brother's extreme pain. There was no wound to bandage, no medicine to give him and nothing physically hurting him on the outside that Zack could remove. Cody looked at him with deep concern welling in his tear streaked eyes, surprising him with the amount of worry that that expression conveyed.

"Get ready…" Cody said, looking off in a random direction as he thought something through, "It's going to happen to you too."

"Do you know when?"

"No, sorry." Cody got shakily to his feet, seeming to think that he was done expelling the contents of his stomach and worked his way over to the sink, grabbing anything along the way to help him balance. He turned the water on and stuck his head partly into the sink bowl, letting the icy liquid clean away the bile on his lips and chin before washing his mouth out. Soon after Cody pulled his head away and splashed some water on his face. Zack handed him a towel to dry off with.

"Thanks…" Cody breathed into the towel as he dried his face, "I feel better now." He threw the towel down on the sink counter and walked into the living room. Glancing at the clock on the kitchen stove that half past eleven Zack realized why their mother wasn't here; she was doing a late performance tonight up until midnight. Cody plopped down on the couch, rubbed his temples for a moment and sighed deeply in relief.

"I don't think I can sleep right now," Cody muttered, reaching for the remote and flipping the television on.

"Same." Zack crashed next to his twin and watched as Cody cycled through the guide looking for something interesting to watch. Sometime before Carey came home from her performance Zack and Cody both felt their eyelids grow heavy, yawned and gave into the sleep that their bodies demanded they get. Zack fell asleep first sitting straight but comfortably leaned into the couch. Then Cody gave in, his position less comfortable made him slide sideways into his brother leaving his head resting on Zack's shoulder.

When Carey came home and saw her sons she felt an explosion of love ripple through her upon seeing such a cute sight. They were no longer her babies or little men. They were pretty much adults now, but they still got along as well as they had when they were younger. She was reminded of the deal she had made six years ago and seeing them now like this made her more certain than ever that she had made the right choice. Carey kissed both of them on the forehead before getting ready to go to sleep herself. She sat down next to Zack and leaned into him as well, wrapping her arm around behind his back and holding him gently longing for the days when he had been smaller and dependent on her.

A/N: Not much to this chapter other than building both twin's characters individually and the bond between them, some more details on their next mission and some kind of change happening to Cody.

Let me know how you liked it! Don't worry, the action is coming soon for this story, but in the meantime my action writing is in full swing with the next chapter of Reflections In Time which is almost done!

Laters!